The budget of Eesti Pank for 2018 will be 21.5 million euros Without cash handling costs, which vary a lot from year to year, the budget will be 0.9 million euros, or 4.6%, larger than in 2017.

Including cash handling costs makes the central bank budget some 1.2 million euros, or 5.1%, smaller next year than this year. The costs for cash will be lower next year because the central bank already made the preparations this year for the gold and silver collector coins that will be issued for the centenary of the Republic of Estonia in 2018.

The notable entries in the central bank's budget for 2018 are the launch of a new statistics portal, and improved cyber and physical security. Spending on information technology will also be increased by the costs of TARGET2-Securities (T2S), the single securities settlement platform of the central banks of the euro area, which Estonia joined in the last year. This means spending on IT will rise by more than 0.5 million euros, and the central bank will invest a total of 1.5 million euros in fixed assets next year.

Eesti Pank's forecasts show that the revenues for next year for the central bank will be 33.3 million euros, the largest part of which will come from revenues stemming from the single monetary policy of the central banks of the euro area. The bank also expects to gain income from management of foreign reserves and other operations. The bank is expected to make a profit of 11.8 million euros in 2018.

Figure Eesti Pank expenditure and budget 2004-2018 in relation to GDP. The columns show the budgeted expenditure for 2017-2018 and actual expenditure for the preceding years.

Eesti Pank plans to employ 234.2 people and the payroll will increase by 2.9% to 10.2 million euros. This will allow the bank to keep salaries for staff comparable to those for similar positions in the financial sector in Tallinn, where Eesti Pank mainly competes for employees.

Eesti Pank and the other central banks of the euro area are responsible for maintaining price stability in the euro area. To do this, Eesti Pank must be independent, and for this reason the bank is not covered by the state budget.

Eesti Pank aims to provide Estonian society with the highest possible quality of central banking services as efficiently as possible. One concern of the central bank is that costs should not rise as a share of GDP while the amount of work to be done remains the same. As cash handling costs can vary widely from year to year, they are not included in comparisons. The budget for 2017 was equal to 0.081% of GDP, but in 2018 it is expected to be 0.078% of GDP.

Eesti Pank's operating revenues for 2017 will be published in the central bank's annual report in the first half of 2018. Reports for earlier years can be accessed from the bank's website: https://www.eestipank.ee/en/publications/series/annual-report

For further information:
Viljar Rääsk
Public Relations Office
Tel: 668 0745, 527 5055
Email: [email protected]
Press enquiries: [email protected]